Seasons: Raining too much

It varies, just like in real life. I've had winters in Newcrest with 'deep' snow almost the entire week, and winters with only one decent snow. Sometimes, you hit the jackpot and get several days of thunderstorms in a row, and sometimes, you hardly get any. You can disable thunderstorms in the options menu - at least temporarily, if you're getting tired of them, and then turn them back on later.

Personally, I kind of like the challenge - my Sims' lives are very scripted, since I play with autonomy off, but I don't mess with the weather, allowing some quirks into my evil design for my Sims.